After the party's former leader Sir Menzies Campbell told the BBC on Sunday morning that the European Human Rights Act "should lie right at the very heart of our constitutional circumstances", a Liberal Democrat spokesperson told the Huffington Post UK that reflected the party's views.

The spokesman said the prime minister's article in the Sunday Express where he rallied against the "misrepresenting of human rights" and vowed to "fight in Europe for changes to the way the European Court works" did not reflect Lib Dem opinion: "David Cameron is setting out his view quite clearly in the Sunday Express, our party would come at it in a different light."

He said his party would oppose "watering down" of the European Rights Act but not "some reform", admitting: "Some rulings do possibly impinge on the process of legislation in the UK".